Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	charity_n	faith_n	true_a	4,242	5	5.3696	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85863	A sermon preached in the Temple-chappel, at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God, Dr. Brounrig late Lord Bishop of Exceter, who died Decem. 7. and was solemnly buried Decemb. 17. in that chappel. With an account of his life and death· / Both dedicated to those honorable societies, by the author Dr. Gauden.	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing G371; Thomason E1737_1; ESTC R202119	101,763	287

respect to St. Austin as a Bishop and his junior in age yet so far his superiour although St. Austins humility indeed so far Complements with and cools the others heat as to say that although Bishop Austins precedency before Presbyter Jerom was by Ecclesiastical use and custom very old Apostolical and universal yet as to the truth of personal worth and eminency of merit Presbyter Jerom was above Bishop Austin Had Bishops and Presbyters in our days carried this equanimity to each other it had been happyer for both § But if Presbyters were clearly of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adequate in their holy Orders and Ecclesiastical Power as to the main which is not easily proved nor was of old so judged by the Fathers for even St. Jerom excepts Ordination as a peculiar belonging to Bishops both in fact and in right for ought appears as Successors to the twelve Apostles who were above the Seventy in point of precedency inspection power and jurisdiction yet the fancy of equality as to Bishops and Presbyters was chiefly fomented by some latter Schoolmen who urged this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Bishops and Presbyters to advance the Popes throne and Soveraignty above Bishops from whose authority Monks and Friars coverted exemption as immediately under the Popes visitation who commonly were old men far off and had dim eyes to see the Monastick disorders Besides the Parasites of the Pope were also to magnifie the later device of Transubstantiating and that Mass power of all Presbyters so high as none might or could exceed it if true yet still the eminent degree and exercise of Bishops as to the Polity and government of the Church both for general inspection and chief jurisdiction for Ordination and Discipline for presidency as well as precedency authority as order was never of old questioned much less denied as Antichristian being as rational and suitable to Religious Order yea and as Christian or Evangelical as for one to be Provost or Master of a Colledge over many Fellows possibly as good men and Schollars as himself or for some Commanders to be over fellow-Souldiers or for some Citizens to be Magistrates over other Freemen or for Parents to own their authority or superiority over their children when they are men and women of the same nature and stature with themselves The levelling of mankinde throughout in State and Church Of levellings in Church and State in Civil Military and Ecclesiastical power because in some things they are equal is but a policy and project of the great author of confusion 1 Cor. 14.33 the God of order appointed of old and approves for ever different degrees ranks and stations in his Church according as men are fitted by him with gifts for government in such ways of meet superiority and subordination as preserves order and deserves respect Exod. 6.25 as the Priests of Aarons family so of the whole Tribe of Levi had their ranks and orders their duties degrees and distances there were Heads and Fathers and chief Fathers of their Tribes and Families as well as of others which the Septuagint render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D●● ● 15 Bishops or Overseers of them and this not onely in age and primogeniture by nature and years but officio praelatura by office and authoritative power so to oversee not as a bare Spectator but as Shepherds or Masters of Assemblies 1 Tim. 5.19 Tit. 2.15 who did rebuke with all Authority yea and reject in cases of demerit And then was it also by St Pauls example and prescription to Timothy and others among the Christian Churches who in the worst times never wanted their good Bishops nor in good time that love honor and obedient regard to them as to their Fathers in the Lord when they were worthy of that name and office The name Father is sanctum suave nomen Of the Name Father its highest sense belongs to God in comparison of whom none is to be called or counted a Father as Christ spake Nemo tam pater Mat. 3.23 nemo tam pius as Tertullian Ambitiosius Patris nomen quam Domini heri exigit God hath an ambition rather to be called Father by us and so treated than Lord and Master Therefore our Saviour begins his and our prayer with Our Father This venerable Name breatheth all comforts this mindeth us of and bindeth us to all filial love this racks us from the sowre dregs of servile fear 1 Iohn 4.18 he that can say this proem or first word Our Father with true faith to God and charity to man need not doubt to go on in that perfect prayer Since men lost their charity to others and their filial regard to God and their reverence to their parents they have avoided to use the saying or praying of the Lords prayer as afraid and ashamed of it because it binds them at the very first word to their good behaviour by the bands of piety to God in Father and of charity to men in Our which no factions or schisms no sinister interests and ends no Pharisaick pride or singularity can endure no more than Witches can the Creed or the unruly Demoniack the presence of Christ § Yet no man is or can be further happy than he hath and owns God for his Father 1. in creation and providence Father of the whole Family in heaven and earth Eph. 5.3 2. In Christ as sending his Son into the world a Redeemer for all men without exception in the value merit and offer of his sufferings and in that conditionate capacity into which every one is by Christ put upon his faith and repentance to be saved and owned as the brother of Christ and Son of God 3. And lastly God is a Father by those special effects of regeneration and grace which follow that immortal seed of his Word and motions of his Spirit where they fall upon broken and contrite spirits not upon hard hearts Mat. 13.5 or fallow and stony ground which refuse the reception and damp the operation of those holy means that are both able and apt to work the life of faith repentance and love in a reasonable soul This highest account of the name Father is only to shew how much it imports of honor love merit and duty being a branch rooted in God and from his goodness springing to his creatures § Why God communicates to men the name of Father But this relative name of Father is none of the incommunicable ones God is pleased to lend the graving or character of it to mankinde and to stamp this paternal honor and Majesty upon some men in natural civil and ecclesiastical respects Hence the first command of the Second Table or the last of the first is that caution to honor father and mother a duty of piety and religion as well as of morality civility humanity and polity God is concerned as despised and injured in any indignities offered to

family and how shall others as Sons pay respect to them as Fathers if they either doubt or deny that relation Iohn 10.1 If every one may affect new ways by-paths and postern doors or climb over the wall or use force and faction to consecrate himself or any other a Minister in the Church according as himself or his party in every family conventicle or congregation fancies best we may look for good store of Jerobohams calves and Idols as well as Priests such as vulgar folly faction and presumption lists to set up to themselves § But of Eliahs and Elisha's few or none may be expected when once Ordinations are various novel defective mutually destructive spurious and so dubious as no learned judicious and upright-hearted Schollars or other sincere Christians can in conscience or prudence be satisfied with them either as to holy duties to be done by them or as to authority inherent in them or the succession derivable from them or lastly as to the reverence and honor to be paid to them § Certainly there is but one regular authentick Catholick and compleat way of Ecclesiastical Ordination and Succession as this reverend Bishop sometimes expressed his sense to me What that was by Bishops and Presbyters no man can be ignorant that is not so willingly for the light of Scripture and Ecclesiastical history is clear as the sun at noon day and although he with others of our learned English Bishops thought it may be venial or tolerable in some cases of persecution necessity and civil obstructions which either Prince or people may sometime put on the Church for some Christian Pastors and people to divert to new and by-ways such as they are permitted to walk in yet they desire and approve the better and more excellent way yet there is no wisdom of Reason or Religion for any Church to forsake the good old way Ier. 6.16 when they might happily walk in it onely to give themselves the popular and pittiful pleasure of diverting to such odd broken ways as possibly may with much scrambling scratching and difficulty bring them at last to the same journeys end with the other yet so as through briars and thorns But I have done with the person of Elisha as here nominated and designed for Eliah's Successor Secondly I come to the Vision in which we are to consider 1 The object What he saw The strangefiery apparition of Eliah's assumption 2 The act or seeing The Object It That is all that strange apparition the wonderful and supernatural manner of Eliah's assumption by a fiery chariot and horses of fire which did gently slide under him and so took him up that he appeared tanquam auriga lucis as sitting in the chariot driving and managing the horses of it like an holy Phaeton not fabulous and fictitious but real and visible to Elisha's bodily eyes All which heavenly pomp and parada was no other but a manifestation of the glory of God by such Angelick ministratious in the way of fire figured like chariot and horses The Observation in general is obvious from Scripture histories Observ 1 Of Gods glory manifested by fire How God is pleased to make his special presence and glory appear to men by way of fire Exod. 3.2 either First immediately and in mercy so to Moses in the bush which was on fire yet consumed not an emblem First How God oft chuseth to reveal himself not in the ways of worldly wisdom and power or greatness as in tall cedars and strong okes but in shrubs and bushes weak and contemptible means Secondly Of the state of the Church in this world which may seem to be all on fire by persecution as the bush or three children in the furnace yet is not burned or wasted thereby Thirdly To shew there is most of Gods presence where the soul is most inflamed with the love of God and zeal for his glory which is a fire not consumptive but refining not predaticious to any but propitious to all true Saints destructive to nothing but our sins and corruptions which are our dross Or secondly Mediately Angels appear in fire Psalm 104.4 Heb. 27 God makes use of the Angels as Ministring Spirits in the similitude of flaming fire In both to shew not only that spiritual purity activity and potency which is in God and proportionably in the holy Angels but also how terrible he can be and will be at last to the wicked men and Angels too to whom he will be as a consuming fire the breath of the Lords anger kindling the fire of Tophet with everlasting burnings which none can quench From the renown of such fiery apparitions and Gods appointment of holy fire Levit. 6.12 5.24 which first came down from heaven to be ever kept alive on his altar The Heathens had those high fancies of fire That it was a god and the Conqueror of all things so worshipped by the Caldeans and venerated by the Romans which their Vestal virgins were to keep unextinguished that they might have this emblem at least of their gods and their souls immortality Secondly Observ 2 We may observe the different dispensations of Gods power and pleasure in the way of fire The different events of Gods fiery dispensations 1 Penal either in judgement or mercy for good and evil for preservation or destruction His Justice rains hell fire from heaven upon the impudent and preposterous sinners of Sodom and Gomorah Gen. 19.24 unnatural lusts are punished with preternatural fires He destroys Nadab and Abihu by fire for offering with culinary N●mb 3.4 and 10.3 common or strange and unconsecrated sire their incense and sacrifice to shew that he will be sanctified in all that draw near to serve him which they must do after his own prescriptions not mans inventions in the matter essence and substance of his worship He blasteth some of Jobs flocks with fire or lightning Iob 1.16 which came from the aerial or first heaven by Gods permission of the devils impression He sends fire from heaven at Eliah's word upon those surly and supercilious Captains with their Fifties who carried themselves to the Prophet Eliah with such pride rudeness and irreverence 2 Kings 1. as was a reproach to the God of Eliah and that Prophetick authority with which he was invested Yet the same God as we have shewed began his first familiarity of talking with Moses face to face by the vision of fire in the bush 2 Propitious He after continued the visible sign of his presence and perfection to the Jews in the wilderness by a pillar of fire shining in the night Exod. 40.38 So to Prophets Ezek. 1.4 and ● 2 and other holy men as to Manoah as to Eliah God manifested his acceptance of their persons sacrifices and prayers by fiery apparitions of his glory yet in a way of mercy So here again in Eliah a fiery messenger is sent to take him out